“We can’t all be Irish gargoyles.” Cash said, the corner of his mouth curling up into a half-smile. It was one of the many expressions I’d managed to pull from the broody gargoyle since I’d met him almost a month ago. “But your impression of me is getting much better though.”
My fingers itched to touch the tattoo on the side of my neck that his nickname came from. When I was on the farm, I usually left it uncovered.
Cash’s eyes dropped to it, taking in the faded pink lines. “If you ever want me to touch that up, just let me know.”
“I didn’t know you tattooed humans,” I said, surprised.
Cash chuckled. “Even if I don’t normally do it, Iamcapable. We used to tattoo humans too, once upon a time before Port Haven became a sanctuary for supes.”
Finally, I gave in to the desire and touched the tattoo. I wanted to bring it back to the way it looked before my mom died. The memory of getting it with her was still just as vivid as it had been the day we did it. Her pink dragonfly had remained crisp and unfaded, even after she left the world while mine faded fast.
I could still remember fighting with her estranged aunt at the funeral home when she asked the mortician to cover it with makeup before the family viewing of her body. Mike dragged me aside halfway through and told me not to cause a scene, so I didn’t and the mortician made it look like the tattoo never existed.
“I don’t want to get it touched up yet,” I told him, my hand leaving the tattoo. I gave myself a quick mental shake, shooing the cobwebs of unhappy memories from my mind. The tattoo was hard enough to cover as faded as it was, I wasn’t sure if I’d be able to manage it if the lines were crisp and pink again.
I was still on the run. A fact that I found myself constantly forgetting as the days went on.
Cash seemed to take my words in stride. “Well, let me know if you change your mind. I’m going to get Cocoa into her stall, can you pull some chicken out for dinner?”
I nodded, giving Cocoa one last look before turning and heading towards the house. Oscar and Saoirse, ever my shadows, followed behind closely. I fed them first, refilling their giant water fountain, before starting dinner.
It took a while for Cash to let me cook, but I’d insisted on it a few days ago. There wasn’t much that I was good at, but my cooking had never been one of Mike’s complaints when we were together.
I was busily chopping carrots and potatoes when my cell began to ring in my pocket.
“Hey, Wen,” I greeted my friend, tucking the phone into the crook of my shoulder as I continued to chop. “How’s the weather out there?”
As summer began to fade into fall, the East coast had been rocked by several tropical storms. It had made communicating with Wendy a bit of a nightmare, but I kept telling myself that no news was good news.
“It’s fine… hey, Daph, I have to tell you something.” Wendy’s tone was immediately off and my stomach dropped. I stopped cutting for a moment, afraid whatever she was going to say next was going to cause me to accidentally chop off a finger.
“What is it?” I asked, my voice practically a squeak.
Wendy’s sigh filled my ear. “You know how we’ve been doing some repairs on the house, right?”
“Yes…?”
A tree had fallen in their backyard onto their house during the last storm. She’d told me all about it last week during our check in.
“We were so caught up with getting it removed and getting everything fixed and cleaned up that I didn’t keep as good of an eye on Mike as I should have,” Wendy began slowly.
My entire body tensed up at the mention of his name. “What’s happened?”
“Sweetie, he up and moved. That house is completely empty,” she said, the words dripping with worry. “And that’s not the worst thing.”
“What could be worse than not knowing where he is?” I snapped and then felt immediately guilty.
“Daphne, we got an email this morning from one of Reggie’s contacts. Mike filed a missing person’s report for you two days ago.”
I froze as the safe little bubble I’d built for myself over the past month popped instantly. Mike filing a missing person’s report was inevitable. I’d been trying to figure out why he hadn’t done it yet and had come to a couple of chilling possibilities.
Mike wouldn’t file a missing person’s report without a good reason. Either someone noticed I was missing, one of his friends, their wives, his bosses… or he knew where I was and was doing all of the legal requirements to have me picked up by law enforcement.
The second seemed more likely, especially now that he’d disappeared himself. That meant Mike was coming for me.
My knees buckled and I barely managed to grab the counter with my free hand as I sank down to the linoleum floor.
“I should have kept a better eye on everything, I’m so sorry.” Wendy continued to apologize, but I could barely hear her.
